Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-09-03


great risks and dangers of such an .xpssii
tIou as ours than to expose himself, notwith
standing his intense longing for his NATIVE
land, to the possible scrutiny Of police Off
cer-which is. after all, only another exem
plification of the truth that, to the majority
of men, far off, foreseen danger, however
shadowy. is much more terrible than th.
most serious present emergency. After listen
ing TO what he had to say, we consulted
among ourselves. and finally agreed, with
Mr. Mackcnzie's knowledge and consent, td
accept his offer To begin with. we wert
very shorthandei, and Alphonse was a quick,
active fellow, who could turn his hand tG
| ANYTHING and rook-ah he could cook
believe that he would have made paiatable
dish of those CATERS Of his heroic grandfather
which he was 50 fond Of talking about. Then
| he was a good tempered little man, and
merry AS a monkey. while his pompous, vain
| ,lorinus talk was IA source of infinite amuSc-
ment TO Us; and what is more, he never bore
m.!jce of course. his being SO pronounced
a coward was a great drawback To him, hut
| now that we knew his weakness We could
more or less guard against it, SO, after warn-
ing him Of the undoubted risks he was expos
ing himself to- told him that we would ac-
| cept his offer on condition that he would
! promise implicit obe,iience to our orders. We
| also promised to give him wages at the rate
| of go a month should lie ever return TO a
civilized country to receive them. To all Of
this he agreed with alacrity, and retired to
write a letter 10 his Annette which Mr.. Mac
| kenzie promised TO post when he got down
country He read it to US afterward, Sir
| Henry translatng. and . wonderful compo-
sition it was l am sure the depth Of his de
votion and the narration Of his sufferings in
barbarous country, far, far from thee,
Annette for whose adored sake l endure such
sorrow," ought to have touched up the feel
| ings of the stoniest hearted chambermaid.
Well, the morrow came, and by O'Clock
the donkeys were all loaded. and the time OF
parting WAS at hand. 1t was a melancholy
| business, especially saying goodby to dear
little Flnssie She and were great friends.
and often used TO have talks together-but
her nerves had never got over the shock of
that awful night when she lay in the power
of those blooithirsty Nasal "Oh, Mr.
Quatermain," she cried, throwing her arms
round my neck and bursting into tears, Il
can't bear to say goodby to yon wonder
when We shall meet again.
II don't know, my dear little girl" said.
u am at one end of life and You are at the
other. have but a short time before me at
hest, and most things lie in the past. but I
hope that for you there are many long and
happy years, and everything lies in the
future. BY and b. you will grow into q
beautiful woman, Flossie, and all this wild
life will be like a far Oft dream to you, but I
hope, even if We never do meet again, that
you will think Of your old friend and remem-
hpr v that n AfwayS fr tn
be good, my dear, and to do what is right,
rather than what happens to bs pleasant. for
In the end. whatever sneering people may
say, wha. is good and what is happy are the
same. BE unseltiSb, and whenever You can,
give helping hand to others-for the world
is full of suffering, my dear, and to alleviate
it is the noblest end that We can set before US.
II You do that You will become n sweet and
God fearing woman and make many peo
pies lives a little brighter, end then YOU will
not have lived. as so many of your sex do, in
vain. And now have gwen YOU a lot of
old fashioned advice. and SO l am going to
give You something to sweeten it with. You
see this little piece of paper. 1t Is what is
called a check When we are gone give it TO
your father with this note-not before. mind.
You will marry one day, my dear little
Flossie, and it is TO buy You a wedding
present which you are 10 wear, and your
daughter after you, if you have one, in re-
membrance Of Hunter Quartermain.'
Poor little Flossie cried very much, and
gave me a lock Of her bright hair i'll return,
which l still have The check l gave her
was for l.0UO (Which, being now well of,
and having no calls upon me except those Of
charity. could well afford. and in the note
directed her father to invest it for her IN
government security, and when she married
or came of age, 10 buy her the best diamond
necklace he could get for the money and
accumulated interest. chose diamonds be-
cause think now that King Solomon's mines
are lost 10 the world. their price will never
be much lower than it is at present; so that
if in after life she should ever be in pecuniary
difficulties, she will he able to turn them into
money
Well, at last We got OF after much hand
shaking hat waving, and also farewell saiut-
ing from the natives, Alphonse weeping CO
piously for he has a warm heart at parting
with his master and mistress; and was not
sorry for it at all, for hate those goodbys-
Perhaps the most affecting thing OF all was
to witness Umslopogaas' distress at parting
with Flossie, for whom the grim old warrior
had conceived a strong affection. He used
to say that she was as sweet to see as the only
star on dark night, and was never tired OF
loudly congratulating himself on having
killed the Lygonani who had threatened to
murder her And that was the last We saw
of the pleasant Mission house-a true oasis in
the desert-and OF European civilization
But l often think Of the Mackenzies, and
wonder how they got down country, and If
they are now safe and well in England, and
will ever see these words Dear little Flossie!
wonder how she fares there where there are
no black folk to do her imperious bidding,
and no sky piercing, snow clad kenia for her
to look at when she gets up in the morning.
And so cooiby to Flossie.
After leaving the Mission house We made
our way comparatively unmolested past the
base of Mount kenia, which the Nasal call
"Donyo Egere," or the 'speckled mountain"
on account Of the black patches OF rock that
appear upon Its mighty spire, where the sides
are too precipitous TO allow Of the snow lying
on them: then OH past the lonely lake Ba-
ringo, where one of our two remaining
Askari, having unfortunately trodden upon
q puff adder, died Of snake bite in spite of all
our efforts to save him. Thence We proceeded
q distance of about l50 miles to another mag
nificent snow clad mountain, called Leka-
kisera, which has never, TO the hest of my
belief been visited before by a European,
but which l cannot now stop tn describe.
There We rested a fortnight, and then started
out into the trackleSs and uninhabited forest
of vast district called Elgumi On emerg-
ing from the great Elgumi forest, we, still
steering northward, in accordance with the
information Mr. Mackenzie had collected